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Vinegar Air and Salty Crispy Potatoes

The inspiration for this recipe came from Daniel Clifford the chef at the Midsummer House restaurant in Cambridge. We went there for lunch and were served a delicious canape of vinegar air with salty crisps. I loved the idea as it brought back my childhood memories.

I used to love vinegar as a child and my mother found me on more than one occasion secretly gulping vinegar directly from the bottle. Strangely I used to choose the malt vinegar, I suppose it was not as harsh as the white. When I grew up we only found red, white and malt vinegar in the supermarkets. Unlike today ,where we have a much wider and a much more sophisticated range to choose from.

The recipe for vinegar air and salted crispy potatoes is a bit of fun and will make people smile. I use the cream whipper to aerate the vinegar and have selected my favourite choice of potato ‘Maris Piper’ for the thin slivers of crisp which will be heavily dusted with coarse sea salt.

I have chosen balsamic vinegar as I find it slightly romantic with the mellow sweet fruity taste. As I am writing this, I remembered a show on television where a famous Chef , specialising in Molecular Gastronomy, had taken a trip down memory lane to recreate his childhood memory of the best fish and chips. Even he found the vinegar to be very important and used an atomizer to vapourise the vinegar over his chips. This recipe reminds me slightly of that chefs experiences.

Balsamic Vinegar Air

150ml balsamic vinegar

100ml water

1 leaf of gelatine

Soak the gelatine in cold water. In a small saucepan heat the water and dissolve the gelatine in the hot water. Add the gelatine water to the balsamic vinegar and pour the solution in to a clean cream whipper.

Charge with two Nitrous Oxide pellets and shake vigorously. Cool the cream whipper in the fridge to soft set the gelatine.

Before serving shake the cream whipper vigorously and squirt the foam into a small dish to serve with the warm crispy salty potatoes.

Salty Crispy Potatoes

2 large Maris Piper potatoes

Course sea salt

oil for deep frying

Peel the potatoes; use a Japanese mandolin to slice the potato thinly. Place the sliced potatoes in a deep bucket of water. Wash the potatoes under cold running water to remove as much of the starch as possible.

Heat the deep fryer to 160°C.

Drain the potatoes ,pat them as dry as possible. Fry the slices of potato in small batches and stir them all the time to prevent them from sticking together. Once they are golden brown and crisp remove them from the fryer with a slotted spoon and drain them on kitchen paper. Immediately dust them with coarse sea salt.

Repeat the process until all the potatoes are cooked. Serve the freshly cooked Salty Crispy Potatoes with a generous amount of Vinegar Air.